Around the world, people are beginning to open their eyes to the true cruelty of animal captivity. Through media, film, and the growing consciousness of the next generation, people have connected over this issue that’s awfulness has been hidden in society hidden in society and corporation. Corporations such as zoos, theme parks, and circuses are that of most concern. Animals seen at these attractions may appear as a spectacle, but behind it lies an unnatural and abusive life for them.

People must no longer think it is reasonable or even ethical to support the captivity of animals simply for cheap and unauthentic entertainment. Animals are simply beings of the world, as we are too. If we truly respect and understand this, we can appreciate and let animals live in their rightful habitats, free from captivity. Every person has a right and an ability to make change towards these efforts. That’s why many groups and even countries have put forth a growing effort to legally take down these means of captivity.

By using law as a medium of changing the public opinion, we can steadily end animal captivity in the world and move toward a future free of abuse towards our fellow animals. This process is an international progression of animal rights, we can legally influence the world toward a peaceful and reasonable treatment of animals.

It was earliest seen in American government with the Animal Welfare Act of 1966. This act influenced and regulated, ”licensing, housing, exhibiting, transporting, and caring for captive wild animals. It was adopted by Congress to protect ‘warm-blooded’ animals bred for commercial sale, used in research, transported commercially, or publically exhibited” (Animal Legal Defense Fund). However, this act provided “minimal standards” to animal care and use and made little change to the condition of animals in the United States. The act provided more of a legal justification for animal captivity and display than actually protecting the livelihood of the animals themselves. Since this act, little has been done in American government to further protection. Although it was a strong effort for the time, many issues still arose despite it.

This was act was put in place just two years after the opening of Seaworld in 1964, one of the most well known animal theme parks today. It was here the epitome of the failure of this act took place, with large mistreatment of killer whales leading up to many human injuries and deaths, highlighted in the film Blackfish. The film proved the mistreatment of these whales were due to these loose regulations of the theme park, an unqualified handling of the animals.

This documentary itself ended up making a large impact on the reputation of Seaworld, with “the stock price of SeaWorld [being] already declined by 60 percent” a year and a half after the release. This film simply brought public attention through media, inspiring many to take action on the topic. People promoted change by relinquishing support for corporations like Seaworld, limiting their popularity, and even taking it to state level issues. In April 2014, a year after the film’s release, California proposed in legislation a ban on orca shows at theme parks.

Animal reform has reached such a large scale in national politics because of those who took action towards change. These people came together in efforts to make the change both in legislature and in public media to spread the awareness of these world matters, in wildlife organizations or simply interest groups. Grassroots animal rights groups have been growing especially during the increase in awareness these recent years and are extremely direct ways for everyday people to impact the change. With a continued public support from those of us against animal abuse, these organized efforts will inevitably bleed into legal change. We live in an age where the power lies in the hands of the people, the momentum of the public will dictate the direction of the future. With this opportunity and with so much to be fixed in the world, it is our obligation as the future citizens of the world to activate.